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Thursday, June 17, 2010

Game chat: It's Kendrick, Pettitte for all the marbles

Trying to follow in Jamie Moyer's footsteps, Kyle Kendrick (3-2, 4.80) looks to recover from his lashing in Boston tonight when the Phillies settle up with Andy Pettitte (8-1, 2.46) and the Yankees. First pitch is 7:05. A win would make it three out of four against two tough interleague rivals. Beerleaguer's eyes will be on reliever Scott Mathieson, although it's unclear what role he'll fill in the Phillies bullpen.

I don't think anyone wants to see him in a high leverage spot right off the bat, but I also don't want to see him in garbage time. I say work him in as a 7th/8th inning ROOGY and let him find his groove from there.

Isn't it kinda ironic that Mathieson's last outing was his worst in a year (which shot his ERA up a whole point) and now he gets promoted.

He's earned his promotion though. He's done everything he could have done and come back from a couple of awful surgeries.

You don't even have to be a Phils fan to pull for this kid to stick.

He's probably only here until Happ is ready. Lets hope Happ comes back healthy and ready to go and Scotty gives them a few good outings before he heads back to LV.

This isn't RJ Swindle coming up either. This kid has a really good arm. Fastball is a little straight, but he usually commands it very well to both sides of the plate. His slider has a lot of bite, but its still a bit of a work in progress. He can get swings and misses with it though, when he is ahead in the count.

Hopefully he sticks to Lidge like glue for the next few weeks and Lidge can teach him a few things about the slider. That will be the pitch that determines if Mathieson is a big league closer or not.

As for tonight's game, I think this is a important outing for Kendrick. Also very important outing for Blanton tomorrow. They are likely battling for the final rotation spot. They might only have 2 more chances to make their presentation to the club, to stick in the rotation. KK gets the Yanks and Indians. Blanton gets the Twins and Indians. We'll see what happens.

Baez has been up and down this year, and given that he's currently on a down I wouldn't be surprised if Mathieson takes some of Baez' time. Most of Baez' innings have come in the 8th (~15 IP). He doesn't have much business pitching to LHB. They've crushed him. Mathieson held LHB to a .213 avg in AAA.

Maybe its me but I don't understand all of the fascination with Mathieson coming up. Yeah he is a nice story about persistence & working-hard. That said, this isn't going to be a guy who is used a whole lot either. Cholly will bury him in the pen to start. Only way Mathieson doesn't dig himself out of it is a prolonged series of strong outings.

Even if Kendrick pitches well, he isn't likely to go deep into the game against this Yankee lineup. They are more than capable of fouling off a bunch of KK sinkers with 2 strikes and run up his pitch count.

So, best case scenario, Matheson and Romero will get a chance to pitch in the 6th or 7th before (hopefully) giving way to Contraras and Lidge.

Kendrick has been good this year, for hte most part. Much better than I expected. Even with the preponderance of right handers, though, this Yankee lineup grinds pitchers down. Phils absolutely have to find a way to put some runs up against Pettite, and get into the bullpen. And,then, they have to actually score some runs against hte bullpen. I enjoyed last night's game but, the performance against Logan and Gaudin was brutal.

MG, I agree that it will take Mathieson time to be used in higher leverage situations given how Charlie usu. handles these greener guys, but Mathieson isn't just a nice story. He's got some stellar minor league numbers (K9 around 10, WHIP around .99 in last two years).

Sophist - Maybe but who takes KK's spot anyt time soon? Everybody keeps touting Happ's return by I have a feeling he is hurt worse than the Phils are letting on. Hell, initially they said he would be out for a few weeks. Then it turned into 4 weeks. Now it is over 2 months later. Still no Happ.

MG, from what I've read Happ is still building up his arm strength/velocity. I don't think he's still hurt or he wouldn't be making his third minor league rehab start this week. Reports are that the elbow is fine but the velocity/strength is not.

MG, I do think he was more hurt than initially thought when he first went down and experienced a setback pain-wise early on. But from what I've read he's passed that and basically in a spring training situation where he's getting back to opening day shape.

Kendrick has really stepped it up lately. Looking forward to a strong start today.

Also, to answer a few questions from the Moyer thread:
1. YES (assuming he keeps it together for the rest of the year, which I have no reason to think he won't) the Phillies should definitely sign him for 2011.

2. YES Jamie Moyer is a Hall of Famer right now and DEFINITELY with 300 wins but that's a lengthy argument involving Advanced Intangible Mathematics and I'm not gonna make it right now.

If Kendrick starts pitching well, and with Happ coming back from the DL. Where does Pedro Martinez fit into the rotation down the stretch? Or is the old, better to have too much pitching than too little.

Jack, I just find it funny that it takes 2 AB for you to question a guy who's actually hit the ball well of late. Ibanez' early season struggles and bad luck on balls in play are well known. If you want a longer period, he's actually hitting .265/.353/.426 in the team's last 50 games after starting the year 7 for 41.

Choooooooch even at yankees stadium. Wow us jerks travel well.
Girardi changing his number is amazingly douchey! Girardi is a Cub and a loser. No amount of rings bought with filthy yankee money can change that.